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Lens

How we look at a specific question, a metric, a method, a category of work, and what that lens reveals. Lens pieces are less argumentative than Worldview pieces and more practical. They’re the kind of thing you’d read if you have a specific question ("how should I think about CAC?" or "what does 'AI in marketing' actually mean for a mid-market company?") and want a clear, opinionated answer. If you’re here because you have a specific question, start in this lane.

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A man in a plaid shirt and cap smiles while working at a desk with dual monitors, one displaying a St. Louis web design and development agency webpage, in a bright office with a green wall panel.

December 18, 2025

Why AI Search Optimization Will Punish Companies That Aren’t Easy to Love

The rules of visibility are changing. Technical SEO got you here, but it won't keep you here. For twenty years, search engine…

Nikki Bisel

December 15, 2025

You Don’t Have The Marketing Problem You Think You Do

There’s a certain kind of marketing that looks amazing on paper. The rebrand with the trendy color palette. The website with the…

Nikki Bisel

November 7, 2025

The Chili’s Comeback: A Masterclass in Prioritizing Customer Experience

How Operational Discipline Became the Ultimate CX Strategy In an era where many casual dining chains are struggling, Chili’s has defied the…

Jared Lender

October 31, 2025

[Opinion Piece] BMW: Horrible Design By Design

Author’s Preface As someone who hosts many branding workshops, I’m always reminding clients that not everyone is a potential customer, and that…

Jared Lender

October 28, 2025

The Future of Brand Loyalty: Experience as Strategy

Brand loyalty used to be about preference. Today, it’s about proof. People no longer stay loyal because they like your logo or…

Nikki Bisel

October 16, 2025

Marketing Systems vs. Campaigns: Why One Builds Legacy and the Other Burns Out

Most marketing is designed to make noise. But the best marketing quietly changes how a business works. It’s the difference between a…

Jared Lender

A professional bio page for Ashleigh Parker, a 45-year-old regional sales manager and ideal customer profile, showing her background, pain points, needs, goals, and decision-making process. Her smiling portrait appears in the bottom left corner.

September 26, 2025

Why Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile Unlocks Every Other Growth Metric

Every business wants growth. More leads, more conversions, more repeat customers. But the companies that actually get there all start in the…

Ryan Foizey

A dashboard displays a customer journey map with colorful sections for stages, metrics, pain points, opportunities, content, and emotion charts, plus icons, graphs, and a timeline summarizing user experience and engagement data.

September 22, 2025

Why Customer Journey Mapping Is the Backbone of Modern Marketing and CX

Marketing used to be thought of as a loudspeaker: a way to blast a message and hope it reached the right ears.…

Nikki Bisel

September 9, 2025

Why Your Acquisition Strategy is Broken

For years, growth playbooks have told the same story: buy more reach, spend more on ads, and outbid competitors for attention. But…

Ryan Foizey

August 26, 2025

Why Customer Lifetime Value is the Metric That Moves Everything Else

In marketing, it’s tempting to chase surface-level wins: clicks, impressions, conversions, even quarterly revenue. But the businesses that endure don’t obsess over…

Nikki Bisel

July 15, 2025

Welcome to the AI Reputation Economy

Why AI isn’t replacing marketing, it’s restoring what made it matter The marketing world loves a revolution. But the rise of generative…

Ryan Foizey

Man sitting behind bookshelf at customer experience and brand experience agency

July 9, 2025

Brand Experience × Customer Experience: The Quiet Shortcut to Revenue, Profit, and Lifetime Value

When growth stalls, the knee‑jerk move is to shove more people into the top of the funnel. Trouble is, attention is now…

Nikki Bisel